Japanese roboticists are trying to challenge Janelle Monae's monopoly on robotic pop stardom. The cutesy HRP-4C dancebot recently debuted at Tokyo's Digital Content Expo. Her choreography was a little stiff, but this robot was dancing totally untethered.

She's deep into futurist Ray Kurzweil and loves Octavia Butler's writing. But her science …
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These videos were taken by K. Moriyama, and the HRP-4C was built by Yokoi Kazuhito of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Masaru Ishikawa of Tokyo University's IRT Laboratory (the choreography was by a one "Mr. SAM.") I guess this means the pop idols of the future will stay around forever like undying gods. The Rolling Stones of the future will never grow old, or at least replace their organs with genetically modified baboon parts (as the present Rolling Stones are wont to do).